• Nepal Diaries: Introduction
• Nepal Diaries: 9W 266 Mumbai–Kathmandu, Jet Airways Economy 
• Nepal Diaries: Hyatt Regency Kathmandu
• Nepal Diaries: Dining at Bhojan Griha
• Nepal Diaries: The Namobuddha Resort
• Nepal Diaries: Kathmandu Executive Lounge
• Nepal Diaries: 9W 265 Kathmandu-Mumbai, Jet Airways Economy/Business

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Like Ajay wrote yesterday, we made a trip to Nepal last week for a quick family vacation. In his post, Ajay explains our strategy to book tickets, which was a mix of award tickets and revenue tickets. Our options to fly were Jet Airways or Nepal Airways, direct to Kathmandu from Mumbai, and we chose Jet Airways.

For an 11 a.m. departure, we arrived at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 at about 8 in the morning. The check-in counters were quite empty and check-in was a breeze as there are hardly any international departures for Jet Airways at this time of the day. We accessed the JetPrivilege Platinum counters due to Ajay’s status, and got our boarding passes quickly along with business class lounge invites to the GVK Lounge. However, when it came to Ajay’s brother, who had an Etihad Gold, we had to remind the crew about him being extended an invite as well, and it was a bit of a challenge to issue him one. After much to and fro, and showing the supervisor Jet Airways’ the relevant section of the website, we got him an invite as well, which took about 20 minutes. Since we’ve already reviewed the lounge before, we won’t be writing about it again. You can read the earlier review here.

After clearing immigration and security, we headed to the lounge to grab a bite for breakfast and spent our time lounging around. We headed to the gates at 45 minutes before the flight. Boarding was already well underway, and off we went through the priority boarding for JetPrivilege elites.

Mumbai(BOM) – Kathmandu (KTM)
Tuesday, June 14 2016
Departure: 11:10AM
Arrival: 01:53PM
Flight Duration : 02hr43min
Distance flown: 989 miles
Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 10A (Economy)
Meal Service: Lunch

This Jet Airways’ flight was operated by a regional Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the same aircrafts that Jet flies to other short haul sectors such as Sri Lanka and Kuwait. We were seated in the bulkead row, me on 10F and in spite of the aircraft being almost full, the middle seat (10E) was empty, while Ajay took 10D. We also had 10A to ourselves.

Boarding was quick and doors were closed before time, however we sat on the tarmac for about 15 minutes waiting for pushback. Twenty minutes after we were airborne, the crew began drinks service. In the alcoholic beverages the only option available was Tiger beer. Passengers who opted for soft beverages had the choice between Apple and Orange juice. No snacks were served with drinks.

Anyhow, I decided to go back to watching my movie on the IFE, that resembled an old style cathode ray video monitor. The IFE on the narrow bodies is a truncated version of the JetScreen collection which is offered on the wide bodies.

Meals were served after a while, and I was quite disappointed with the catering. I opted for the vegetarian lunch. I fly Jet often and I have been served better hot meal on domestic sectors.

After the meal, I went back to watch my movie. The flight overall was smooth and towards the last half an hour I tried to catch a glimpse of the mountains outside the window but unfortunately there was heavy cloud cover. The captain informed us that on a clear day you catch a good view of the snow capped Himalayan ranges during flight descent.

In spite of a delayed departure ex Mumbai, the flight landed on time in Kathmandu. There are only bus gates at the Tribhuvan International Airport and upon arrival inside the terminal I noticed that parts of the terminal building were under re-construction which perhaps may have been damaged during the 2015 earthquake.

There is no Visa required for Indians visiting Nepal and immigration is a fairly simple process that does not take too much time. However, Jet did not distribute the arrival forms on the flight, so it took a while to locate a form and a pen, after which, I was on my way. There are a series of checks, including a metal detector placed to get out to collect your bags, after which the customs matches your bag tags to the luggage and then snips away the luggage claim tags from your boarding passes, which I found interesting.

Overall, an uneventful flight, and I was surprised that IFE worked on this flight, because on most such segments I usually note the non-functioning IFE.

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